A Shade of Vampire 88: An Isle of Mirrors

by Forrest, Bella

  Voss’s clone managed to escape the flames, bolting into the redwood forest, but the blaze caught Chantal’s clone in full. She screamed in agony as the fire consumed her. She dropped and rolled on the ground over and over, but nothing helped. The flesh melted off her bones, black smoke rising as she took her last breath and stilled. Looking at her charred remains, I realized what was so off about the way she’d died.

  “She’s a fire fae,” I said quietly. “The fire isn’t supposed to kill her…”

  The body was barely a figure with legs and arms and a head, a black and reddish crust covering every inch of her. Dafne and Jericho approached her cautiously, while Thayen helped me up. He looked better than I felt, but I was thankful we’d both made it out of this alive.

  “Long live the dragons, huh?” he said, only partially amused. “Are you okay, Astra?”

  “They did something to us.” I glanced at the clone’s body. “Is she really dead?”

  Dafne huffed and pulled her head back just in time, as the burnt doppelganger sprang up shrieking and ran off into the woods. It left us all stunned and unable to react as we tried to wrap our heads around this.

  “Well, this is endless shades of wrong,” Soul grumbled, finally up and in a better state than before. “What was that black mist thing? It messed with my head on so many levels… I’m still shaking!”

  “Isn’t anyone wondering how a fire fae clone could succumb to the one element she is supposed to be impervious to?” I asked, my voice trembling as I leaned into Thayen. “Also, how the hell did she manage to just get up and bolt away like that? I don’t… I don’t get it.”

  Dafne and Jericho approached us, staying in their dragon forms. They both sniffed the air, their reptilian eyes scanning every inch of the place. Dafne was the first to shift back into her humanoid form, and I gave her my jacket so she could cover herself.

  “Thanks. Chantal, Voss, and Soph are on their way back with my stuff.” she said. “I came across them in the redwood forest, not far from the Great Dome. They were chasing after Chantal’s clone. As for your question regarding it and fire… I’m gonna take a wild guess and suggest that maybe whoever’s making these fiends doesn’t have all the information. Or maybe they have faulty genetic material? I don’t know, just a theory at this point.”

  “Even so, this is insane.” I sighed, the adrenaline gradually wearing off to reveal the physical trauma I had just overcome. My legs were shaky and weak, but Thayen stayed close as I tried to gather my thoughts into something coherent.

  “I don’t know much about the clones’ genetic makeup,” Dafne added, “but Voss and his crew lost Chantal’s clone. I picked up a faint trail and followed her up here.”

  Jericho sat on his hind legs, threads of smoke billowing from his nostrils. “And what’s your deal?” Soul asked him.

  It made Dafne chuckle. “He tagged along. He and his crew were chasing after Richard’s clone again. There are definitely more of these creeps around. Though I fail to understand their purpose. The comms systems and Telluris are both down—none of our messages have been getting through.”

  “What in the world are we going to do?” Thayen wondered. “Clearly, they won’t stop coming for Astra, and they’ll keep trying to release their Isabelle.”

  “True. But they’re also off by a few degrees,” Soul noted. “Some are accurate clones, like Isabelle’s. Others are… tweaked.”

  “Voss’s clone has blade wings and Chantal’s has a vulnerability to fire,” I said.

  “Jericho’s blaze hurt her, but it didn’t kill her.” Dafne nodded slowly. She glanced at the fire dragon, raising an eyebrow. “You can shift back now. It’s kind of weird being the only naked one. Well, half-naked, anyway.”

  Thayen chuckled. “I think that’s exactly why he’s not turning. Someone else has his clothes, likely those in his crew.”

  “Aw, Jericho is bashful.” I allowed myself a giggle.

  Surrendering to the despair that had tested me earlier would’ve meant defeat. I refused to yield before these clones, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to let them disrupt our way of life anymore. We’d just survived a heinous attack, but we’d also discovered a few changes in their strategy. They had tools and methods to fight us. That suggested they were better organized than we’d originally assumed.

  Their failures had taught them to try different things, but they clearly lacked all the information they needed to succeed. As baffling as it all was, I found a glimmer of hope in knowing that they were essentially winging it, much like the rest of us.

  Astra

  (Daughter of Phoenix and Viola)

  A few minutes later, we found a medical robe for Jericho to put on. The rest of his crew were still chasing down other clones. From what Jericho and Dafne told us, there had been at least four strange sightings, and nearby teams of GASP agents were spotted going after the slippery doppelgangers. Our biggest problem was with the communications channels. The earpieces weren’t getting through to anyone, and Telluris didn’t seem to be working, either.

  I used my Daughter magic, deeply rooted in the natural elements, to conjure up a watery mist that spread through and around the burning hospital. The flames died out quickly. Considering we still had Isabelle’s clone to guard, we decided to stick together and head back to her room to make sure she was definitely okay in there. Soul and the witches might’ve put the mother of all wards on that box, but we still had to check. Besides, the others in the hospital who’d been present during the attack must have run out to warn everyone.

  “We’ll be seeing some senior officers soon,” Dafne said as we moved through the long, narrow hallway leading up to the clone’s room. “I saw people running away from the hospital on my way here. They’ll figure out that the comms are down and start sending envoys to warn the civilians.”

  “Plus, we still have the island-wide announcement system,” Jericho added, fastening the robe’s belt around his waist to make sure it didn’t flutter. “Thanks for jumping in, by the way.”

  Dafne gave him a sideways glance. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “I just figured you’d rather hole up in the Black Heights or something.”

  “Why?” the ice dragon replied, while Jericho began to fumble his words.

  “Because… you’re the recluse type?” In that respect, the fire dragon was on to something. But given the circumstances, along with the fact that Dafne had been present when Isabelle’s clone had first tried to kill me, I wasn’t at all surprised that she’d chosen to stick around instead of heading back to the Black Heights.

  “You’re not making much sense,” Dafne chuckled. “What happens in The Shade, anywhere in The Shade, concerns us all. Dad’s the one who doesn’t come out much, but I’ve been here since the beginning with Isabelle’s doppelganger. Obviously, I’ll do what I can to help police the island. You know, with the killer clones prancing around like nobody’s business.”

  Jericho exhaled, unable to take his eyes off her. “You are absolutely right. I shouldn’t have doubted you.”

  “Meh. You fire dragons have a way of being judgy sometimes, with regards to my species, anyway.”

  “Ice dragons make that easy,” Jericho shot back. I’d almost forgotten about this antiquated line of thinking. It wasn’t an issue anymore, but the dragons still brought it up once in a while to playfully poke another.

  Dafne was actually amused. “See? Judgy. Proves my point.”

  “I know Jericho has already said it, but thank you for stepping in when you did,” I interjected, offering her a smile. The last fight had rattled me, and I doubted I’d be okay anytime soon, but I had to push through. This was nowhere near over. On the contrary, I had a feeling our nightmare was only just beginning.

  “Don’t mention it. I just followed the smell of trouble,” Dafne replied. Her grayish blue eyes darted all over the place as she analyzed every inch of space ahead. Most of the floor had burned enough for the walls to turn black. Ashes lin
gered in the air, flakes of papers and medical paraphernalia, towels and uniforms that had been reduced to nothing. Looking at it now, I realized how lucky we’d been to find an intact garment for Jericho in the reception area of the hospital, which hadn’t incurred as much damage.

  We could see the broken windows and the door to the clone’s room. From what I could tell, Soul had been right. The protection spells had kept it safe and virtually intact, causing an interesting contrast of pure white walls and the marbled floor against the charred aspect of everything else around it.

  “Have you been able to reach any of the Reapers yet?” I asked Soul, and he shook his head.

  “I’ll go get Kelara as soon as we check on Miss Knockoff in there,” he said. “Something’s off here, and I don’t like it. The only time comms are cut is when there’s an assault coming, and I doubt the four clones running around in the woods are the first wave.”

  “What about the ones we fought?” Thayen asked. “Weren’t they the first wave?”

  “Nah. Two of them were manageable,” Soul said. “I think we should assume the worst is yet to come.”

  When I reached the glass panel, I breathed a sigh of relief. Isabelle’s clone was very much alive and tethered to the table with charmed cuffs. She seemed annoyed by our presence. “I was hoping you were all dead,” she grumbled, leaning back in her chair.

  I had trouble getting the burnt smell out of my nose. This place had been a haven, a place of healing and peace. The mere fact that they had attacked it felt like an act of war, and Soul’s warning made me worry about where they might strike next.

  “They’re obviously after Isabelle’s copy,” Jericho said. Occasionally, he stole glances at Dafne but looked away whenever she shifted her focus to him. Under different circumstances, I would’ve found their dynamic cute.

  Thayen looked at the device we’d rescued from Voss’s clone. “And we still don’t know what this thing is…”

  “He was trying to use it on the door,” I replied. “It’s got to be some type of lockpick.”

  “And that disk Chantal had. And the black spray… that was the worst,” Soul said, visibly troubled. “It affected me directly. I’ve never seen anything like that before.”

  Dafne scoffed, shaking her head slowly. “Whatever foreign magic they’ve got, it seems to have an effect on everyone, alive or otherwise. They did some of their homework right, since our GASP-issued masks are useless for this stuff. It’s a shame Chantal’s clone ran off with the disk. I would’ve loved to take a look at that thing, too.” She paused to give Jericho a stern frown. “You should’ve turned the heat up on her.”

  “I went full throttle!” Jericho exclaimed. “It’s not my fault she’s resilient. She was cloned after a fire fae. It’s a miracle I even hurt her at all. That wasn’t supposed to happen. I used my fire to at least distract her with an enormous amount of flames. I’m surprised it took so well.”

  “For what it’s worth, you did a good job out there,” Dafne admitted. It seemed to have an impact on Jericho, as he looked away, his cheeks blooming red for a moment.

  “Thanks. You weren’t too bad yourself.”

  Soul cleared his throat, demanding our attention. “I’ll go out and get Kelara. We’re spiritually bonded, so I know where to find her, even without our telepathic connection.”

  “Is she still at the terrace?” Thayen asked, slightly concerned. “Surely, she and the others would’ve heard the blast. There were witnesses running away from the hospital.”

  “I’ll find out. Maybe they had issues of their own,” Soul replied, then vanished.

  While checking the hallway for any details I might have missed earlier, I replayed the entire fight in my head. It had been manageable, like the Reaper had said, until they pulled out the black spray. Whatever that was, it messed with our heads in ways I feared we’d never truly overcome. The sensations I struggled with still haunted me, the horror already settled in my chest and unwilling to ever go away.

  It was as if a nightmare had followed me all the way into the waking world, long after a restless sleep. I looked at Thayen and noticed his troubled expression. “What is it?” I asked him, and he replied with a shrug. “Come on, talk to me.”

  “I can’t shake it off,” he said, his shoulders dropping. “I don’t know what they put in that black spray, but… I think it’s doing something to me.”

  “To the both of us,” I replied. “And we will get through it. For now, however, we must keep moving.”

  Jericho and Dafne gave us both a pair of worried frowns. “What’s Thayen talking about?” the ice dragon cut in, measuring me from head to toe. I told her about the black spray and the effect it had on us. She and Jericho had come in wrathful and violent, and they hadn’t noticed the devices that the clones had used against us. By the time I was done describing every sensation that Thayen, Soul, and I had dealt with, I could tell they were both disturbed.

  “It hasn’t done anything to us, physically speaking,” I added. “I would’ve felt it, for sure. But my psyche, and apparently Thayen’s too, is… I don’t know. ‘Damaged’ is perhaps too strong a word.”

  “You should have Viola or Lumi look at you both,” Dafne advised.

  I nodded my agreement. “As soon as we get over this next hurdle. You heard Soul. We’re in the first wave.”

  “Oh, absolutely,” Richard interjected, stalking toward us from the other end of the hallway. I didn’t need to put my hand through his chest to recognize him as a clone. He carried a mirror disk much like Chantal’s copy, and he had a murderous look on his face. But the fact that he was alone baffled me.

  I wasn’t the only one who noticed, either. “What’s a clone doing up here on his own?” Jericho wondered aloud, following up with a low growl.

  “We can’t shift in here,” Dafne warned him. “It’ll tear what’s left of this hospital apart.”

  “You don’t need to,” Thayen said, his posture stiffening in anticipation, as only a few yards remained between us and Richard’s clone. “You said it yourself, Jericho. He’s alone. We can take him.”

  “You can certainly try.” The doppelganger chuckled. He bolted toward us, and I reacted with a powerful barrier. The rippling pulse shot forward, nudging Thayen aside as it hit Richard’s clone in the solar plexus and knocked him back.

  In an instant, he was back up, grinning like a deviant as he brought the mirror disk up in one hand and the black spray in the other. My stomach tightened as I realized we weren’t prepared to deal with another horror trip like the one before.

  “Thayen, stand back,” I shouted and hurled another barrier at the fiend. “Dafne, Jericho, don’t let him reach you with that thing!”

  Dafne was quick to react and improvise. She grabbed what was left of a chair and threw it at Richard’s clone. It distracted him long enough for Jericho to swerve behind him and kick him right between the shoulder blades, expelling the air from his lungs.

  Thayen dashed forward and drove his knee into the clone’s back, pinning him down, while I grabbed his wrists and slapped on a pair of charmed cuffs.

  “Like this… is going to stop me.” Richard’s double laughed between bouts of coughing and wheezing from Thayen’s pressure on his back.

  “Wait, hold on,” I murmured, understanding the subtleties in his tone. “Thayen, get off him.”

  The vampire got up, and I rolled Richard’s clone over. Only then did we all see the strange object serving as a belt buckle. It was shaped like a tear, featuring tiny channels in a circular pattern. Light flickered through each indent, moving from the edges in toward the center. My senses blared as I realized it was a countdown of sorts, the object beeping louder as the light filled it from within.

  “We need to get away from him,” I managed. I dragged Thayen as far as I could before his own instincts kicked in, and he started running beside me.

  We all raced down the hallway, headed for the stairs. Richard’s clone was left behind, laughing maniacally
in our wake. I didn’t even get a chance to look over my shoulder before a violent blast ripped that whole hospital wing apart. The thundering shockwave followed in a split second, ramming into us with the force of a high-speed train.

  “Go, go, go!” Thayen shouted. We nearly tumbled down the stairs, aided by the blowback, and crossed the lobby on the ground floor. I fell to my knees, sharp pain shooting up my thighs, but Jericho pulled me up.

  We burst through the doors as the entire already damaged structure came down, rubble exploding outward and hitting us all in the back and the legs. Anger coursed through my veins as I whirled around and released the widest barrier I’d ever been able to conjure. It deflected most of the flying pieces of the hospital’s shattered walls, along with the swelling puffs of dirt and dust that inadvertently followed.

  My muscles ached, but I was still standing.

  A few minutes passed in wretched silence as we watched it all come down, Isabelle’s clone’s room was left in the middle, untouched and safe, while everything else had fallen apart around it. Iron beams had melted, deformed and twisted by the powerful explosion. Most of the bricks had been turned to reddish dust and pebbles. Glass had been sprinkled everywhere, capturing some of the moonlight in its tiny shards. And clouds of powder danced through the clearing before settling in a thick layer over every surface.

  This was a piece of The Shade that the clones had destroyed. A part of our lives. They were going to great lengths to wreak havoc and to get Isabelle’s double out of here. It had to mean something.

  “Are you okay?” Thayen asked.

  I nodded slowly. “Yeah, just worn out.”

  “No kidding! That was one hell of a barrier you threw out,” Jericho replied, genuinely impressed. I couldn’t stop myself from blushing.

  “Well, at least our precious doppelganger is still okay,” Dafne noted, staring at the box surrounded by rubble and dirt and burnt ruins from which black smoke rose in thin columns reaching for the heavens.